Red Bull will not have works team label, says Honda

Honda say that they will not identify Red Bull or Toro Rosso as their works F1 team for 2019.

Honda says that "it doesn't make sense to assign labels to its customers.

Red Bull announced this morning their decision to partner up with Honda for the 2019 season.

There was reasonable expectation that Red Bull would have works team status - similar to McLaren, in their three years with Honda.

McLaren had exclusive use of Honda's engine, but Honda have since made it clear that they want to present equal status as they prepare to provide their engine to a second customer for the first time in 11 years.

"From a manufacturer's point of view, it doesn't make sense to identify either team as either works or customer, as current regualations oblige us to supply the same power unit to all our teams," said Honda's motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto.

"In that sense, this contract puts the three parties into an equal position.

"Just as was the case with Toro Rosso, we felt a sincere respect from Red Bull throughout the conversation that led to this contract.

"We appreciate them showing us such an attitude even after seeing our difficult time over the previous three years in F1."

Yamamoto confirmed that there won't be a change in Toro Rosso's relationship with Honda because of this new deal.

He also said that this partnership will not distract Honda from achieving their 2018 goals.

"We expect mutual transaction between the teams and Honda within the regulations," Yamamoto said.

"It was a great result finishing fourth in the second round (Bahrain Grand Prix), but there were some ups and downs after that.

"It was a very interesting season for fans, as well as those of us who work in the sport, because it seems that the result of the midfield runners varies depending on the car set-up and the characteristics of the tracks.

"We are now working on development to get further improvements to challenge for even better results for the rest of this season."